Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-05T02:06:49.139Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Multiple refractions. The metamorphosis of the notions of beauty in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Abstract

Japanese occidentalism is characterized by the view that the culture of the Occident was seen as just as exotic to the Japanese as the Orient was to the Europeans, but it is accompanied by a feeling of cultural inferiority. This paper tries to illustrate the Japanese occidentalism in the different aesthetic perceptions of beauty, especially of female beauty, mainly in literary discourse from the late nineteenth century up to the immediate present. The notion of female beauty is formed through cultural discourse according to how the cultural inferiority is perceived. It is like the scenery without the substance and is interchangeable depending on the staging of the occidentalism.

Type
Focus: Japan and Europe
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London/New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
2.Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London/New York: Routledge). p. 6.Google Scholar
3.Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London/New York: Routledge). p. 6.Google Scholar
4.Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London/New York: Routledge). p. 35.Google Scholar
5.Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation (London/New York: Routledge). p. 29.Google Scholar
6. Cited from: Shizu, Sakai (1979) Introduction to ‘Daily of Bälz’ (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), p. 17. (Japanese names are written in their original order, i.e. family names are first.)Google Scholar
7.Bälz, E. (1899) Joshi no taiiku (Physiological Education of Women). In: Fujin eisei zasshi, vol.115, 06 (translated by Michiyoshi, Mishima).Google Scholar
8.Yatarô, Tanaka (1902) Ikani shite eisei sisô o fukyû seshimu bekika (How to expand hygienic knowledge). In: Dainihon shiritsu eisei kai zasshi, vol. 257. October, cited from: Nihon josei seikatsu shi, vol. 4., edited by Josei shi sôgô kenkyû kai (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press), p. 105.Google Scholar
9.Jogaku zasshi, No. 516 (1903), p. 181. Reprint, Kyoto (Rinsen Shoten) 1966–67.Google Scholar
10. The first wave of Japanese Women's Literature emerged in the early years of the Meiji era under the influences of the enlightenment movement, and was represented by Higuchi Ichiyô and others.Google Scholar
11.Shige, Mori (1966) Haran. In Meiji bungaku zenshû (Collected Writings in the Meiji Era), vol. 82 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô).Google Scholar
12.Shige, Mori (1966) Haran. In Meiji bungaku zenshû (Collected Writings in the Meiji Era), vol. 82 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô). p. 172.Google Scholar
13.Shige, Mori (1966) Haran. In Meiji bungaku zenshû (Collected Writings in the Meiji Era), vol. 82 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô). p. 170.Google Scholar
14.Kikuko, Kodera (1966) Akasaka In Meiji bungaku zenshû (Collected Writings in the Meiji Era), vol.82 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô).Google Scholar
15.Kikuko, Kodera (1966) Akasaka In Meiji bungaku zenshû (Collected Writings in the Meiji Era), vol.82 (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô). p. 197.Google Scholar
16.Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble (New York/London: Routledge), p. 13.Google Scholar
17.Kanoko, Okamoto (1993) Divina Comedia of Body (the original title: Nikutai no Shinkyoku). In Collected Writings (Paperback Edition) (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô), vol. 3.Google Scholar
18.Kanoko, Okamoto (1993) Divina Comedia of Body (the original title: Nikutai no Shinkyoku). In Collected Writings (Paperback Edition) (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô), vol. 3. p. 308.Google Scholar
19.Kanoko, Okamoto (1993) Divina Comedia of Body (the original title: Nikutai no Shinkyoku). In Collected Writings (Paperback Edition) (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô), vol. 3. P.406.Google Scholar
20.Kanoko, Okamoto (1993) Divina Comedia of Body (the original title: Nikutai no Shinkyoku). In Collected Writings (Paperback Edition) (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô), vol. 3. P.425.Google Scholar
21. Interview in Yomiuri Newspaper, 1939.Google Scholar
22.Kanoko, Okamoto (1976) Shin Josei Dokuhon (The Reader for New Women). In Collected Writings, vol. 12 (Tokyo: Tôju Sha), pp. 149150.Google Scholar
23.Kôichi, Isoda, Afterword to Naomi, p. 323. (cf. note 24.)Google Scholar
24.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), p. 36.Google Scholar
25.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), p. 67.Google Scholar
26.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), p. 68.Google Scholar
27.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), p. 69.Google Scholar
28.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), pp. 207208.Google Scholar
29.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1986) Naomi (the original title: Chijin no Ai), translated by Chambers, A. H. (Tokyo: Tuttle), p. 211.Google Scholar
30.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1977) In Praise of Shadows (the original title: In'ei Raisan), translated by Harper, T. J. and Seidensticker, E. G. (Leete's Island Books), p. 8Google Scholar
31.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1977) In Praise of Shadows (the original title: In'ei Raisan), translated by Harper, T. J. and Seidensticker, E. G. (Leete's Island Books), p. 20.Google Scholar
32.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1977) In Praise of Shadows (the original title: In'ei Raisan), translated by Harper, T. J. and Seidensticker, E. G. (Leete's Island Books), p. 30.Google Scholar
33.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1977) In Praise of Shadows (the original title: In'ei Raisan), translated by Harper, T. J. and Seidensticker, E. G. (Leete's Island Books), p. 33xsGoogle Scholar
34.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki (1977) In Praise of Shadows (the original title: In'ei Raisan), translated by Harper, T. J. and Seidensticker, E. G. (Leete's Island Books), p. 42Google Scholar
35.Harper, T. J. (1977) Afterword to In Praise of Shadows, p. 48.Google Scholar
36. Quoted from: Kôichi, Isoda, Afterword to Naomi, p. 325.Google Scholar
37.Kôichi, Isoda, Afterword to Naomi, p. 322.Google Scholar
38.Jun'ichirô, Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows, p. 30.Google Scholar
39.Susumu, Nishibe (2000) Ten'nô sei to bushidô toiu rekishi no chikuseki. In Seiron (Tokyo: Sankei shinbun sha), 02, p. 80.Google Scholar
40.Susumu, Nishibe (2000) Ten'nô sei to bushidô toiu rekishi no chikuseki. In Seiron (Tokyo: Sankei shinbun sha), 02, p. 80.Google Scholar
41.Ryu, Murakami (1990) All Men are Disposal Goods (the original title: subete no otoko wa shômôhin de aru (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten), Vol. 2, p. 169Google Scholar
42.Ryu, Murakami (1990) All Men are Disposal Goods (the original title: subete no otoko wa shômôhin de aru (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten), Vol. 1, pp. 89.Google Scholar
43.Ryu, Murakami (1990) All Men are Disposal Goods (the original title: subete no otoko wa shômôhin de aru (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten), Vol. 1, pp. 170171.Google Scholar
44.Ryu, Murakami (1990) All Men are Disposal Goods (the original title: subete no otoko wa shômôhin de aru (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten), Vol. 1, p. 257Google Scholar
45.Ryu, Murakami (1990) Fascism of Love and Vision (Tokyo: kôdansha).Google Scholar
46.Ryu, Murakami (1990) Fascism of Love and Vision (Tokyo: kôdansha). p. 540.Google Scholar
47.Ryu, Murakami (1990) Fascism of Love and Vision (Tokyo: kôdansha).Google Scholar
48.Mosse, G. L. (1988) Nationalism and Sexuality: Middle-Class Morality and Sexual Norms in Modern Europe (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press), p. 116.Google Scholar